Seven Years Apart

Synopsis

I loved Julian Hayes for seven years. When I was kidnapped, he refused to pay the ransom, all because his secretary suggested this was a perfect chance to teach me a lesson and make me *behave*. I endured hellish torment. Finally, I learned to stay away from Julian. But then, he cried, begging me for another chance. The day I walked barefoot into the city center, I made headlines. The adopted daughter of the Hayes family, kidnapped for months, returned a wreck – clothes torn, filthy, reeking, her feet bare and covered in scars, like a beaten animal scrambling back home. I watched the media flashes ignite around me, frantic to capture every second, but my heart was long dead, a stagnant pool incapable of stirring even a ripple. The old Scarlett was gone. The bright, innocent, headstrong, vibrant Scarlett had died. It was those kidnappers, and Julian Hayes, who had utterly destroyed her. Soon,